Isoroku Yamamoto 山本 五十六

Should hostilities once break out between Japan and the United States, it is not enough that we take Guam and the Philippines, nor even Hawaii and San Francisco. To make victory certain, we would have to march into Washington and dictate the terms of peace in the White House. I wonder if our politicians, among whom armchair arguments about war are being glibly bandied about in the name of state politics, have confidence as to the final outcome and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.
© Isoroku Yamamoto
(prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor)
Isoroku Yamamoto was a Japanese Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II until his death. He was promoted to Marshal Admiral posthumously. However, arguably the most intriguing part of his personality was that he strongly opposed both the pact with the Axis powers and the war against the USA. He was one of the few people in Japanese high command untouched by the militaristic hysteria, who kept his head cool and thought in a rational and systematic manner.

Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil fields in Texas knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America.
© Isoroku Yamamoto
Yamamoto`s reluctance to go to war against the USA was based not on fear or indecisiveness but on good knowledge of the subject. On February 13, 1924, at the rank of captain, he was part of the Japanese delegation visiting the US Naval War College. Later on, he also participated in the Second London Naval Conference of 1930 as a rear admiral and the 1934 London Naval Conference as a vice admiral. He proved to be not only a capable commander but also a talented diplomat.

The fiercest serpent may be overcome by a swarm of ants.
© Isoroku Yamamoto
Yamamoto was one of the advocates of naval aviation and made a huge effort in implementing carrier forces.

In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain, I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.
© Isoroku Yamamoto
His assessment turned out to be the correct one. Upon the initial success against both the US and Allies Navies, the later portion of the Pacific war was predetermined because of the huge disparity in the numbers and resources between the opposing parties.

People who don't gamble aren't worth talking to.
© Isoroku Yamamoto
Yamamoto`s death was a dramatic event. He was always keen on playing games: shogi, bridge, and other card games were among his favorites. Many considered his plan of attack on Pearl Harbor as one more of his gambles but it was only an attempt to equalize the forces with one decisive strike because otherwise, it would have been impossible to combat the US Navy. After the Guadalcanal defeat, Yamamoto decided to visit the frontlines to inspire his troops. His subordinates tried to dissuade him, pointing out that such a visit is too risky due to enemy aviation activity. However, he did not heed their arguments. The US forces managed to intercept the radio transmission with the exact date, time, and route of his flight and sent a group of P-38 fighters to intercept and shoot down his G4M plane. The operation was a success and the Japanese Imperial navy was beheaded.

In Strategic Mind: the Pacific players choosing the Japanese campaign will be putting on the shoes of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in his role of the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet and trying to outdo what he did historically.
Please, keep following our news updates to learn more about the rest of the characters for the Empire of japan campaign.

Oh, and by the way, there is one detail we have omitted in the text but it can be clearly seen on the screenshot of Yamamoto above. Please, share your thoughts in the comments of what it could be.

Also, our contest “Absolute victory at Guadalcanal” https://steamcommunity.com/games/991810/announcements/detail/1612763361809536871 after long 3 months is finally finished and we have our champion - Sethlon, who was first to fulfill all of the competition requirements and tell us about his Absolute victory on Guadalcanal.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1835785497
Our team congratulates Sethlon with this achievement. We hope that he along with the rest of players will enjoy playing the full version of the game this autumn.

With best regards
Starni Games development team

Hideki Tojo(Kyūjitai: 東條 英機; Shinjitai: 東条 英機) was a Japanese politician and general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) who concurrently served as the Imperial Rule Assistance Association's leader and 40th Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II.

“The heart of the matter is the imposition on us
of withdrawal from Indochina and China ...
If we yield to America's demands, it will destroy
the fruits of the China incident.
Manchukuo will be endangered
and our control of Korea undermined.”
© Hideki Tojo
Tojo has become a Prime Minister in 1941, right before the Pearl Harbor events. He was a supporter of preemptive war against the US, a widespread notion in the Imperial Japanese Army. The Navy commanders opposed such notion as they were more aware of the naval strength of the Allies. Another candidate for Prime Minister position was Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, however, Emperor Hirohito did not want the royal family to have any ties with the war and possible war crimes, so he supported Tojo appointment instead. Tojo was known to be extremely loyal to the Emperor, the man who would never support any coup. After the war, he became a scapegoat for Japanese military crimes, though he was indeed responsible for them.

"I am very sorry it is taking me so long to die.
The Greater East Asia War was justified and righteous.
I am very sorry for the nation and all the races
of the Greater Asiatic powers.
I wait for the righteous judgment of history.
I wished to commit suicide but sometimes that fails."
© Hideki Tojo
When the US tried to arrest him right after the war, he shot himself (unsuccessfully) and said the quote above. During his imprisonment, he received a new set of dentures, made by an American dentist, into which the phrase "Remember Pearl Harbor" had been secretly drilled in Morse code. The trial sentenced him to death and he was executed in 1948.

“It is natural that I should bear entire responsibility
for the war in general, and, needless to say, I am prepared to do so. Consequently, now that the war has been lost,
it is presumably necessary that I be judged
so that the circumstances of the time can be
clarified and the future peace of the world be assured.”
© Hideki Tojo
Hideki Tojo will be one of the key characters in the Empire of Japan campaign in Strategic Mind: The Pacific.
Stay with us to learn more information about the Empire of Japan campaign. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

With best regards,
Starni Games development team

One of the main forces to reckon with in Strategic Mind: The Pacific is aircraft force. However, some players struggle to learn all the tricks necessary to utilize aircraft to the utmost. So, we decided to share some advice which should help you in command of the air force.


1) Use “overstrength”
You can increase experienced units` strength as shown at the screenshot above.
This is extremely important! It is one of the biggest advantages of Aircraft over naval units. Increased strength improves not only survivability but also the damage output. A 15 strength bomber will deal 50% more damage compared to 10 strength one.
2) Do not underestimate skills
Aircraft have a set of great skills, make good use of them. Here are a few examples:
Afterburner - increases not only operational range, but also defense of an aircraft unit.
Boom & Zoom - you should activate this one when engaging the enemy fighters. It will allow you to attack before the enemy returns fire.
Linked the fight - is extremely important to deal with a pair of enemy fighters next to each other.
Altitude - will increase the survivability of your aircraft units manyfold.
Tactical retreat - is great for repositioning your units after the attack to minimize retaliation.
And so on.
3) Make good use of equipment
Various types of ammo will increase the effectiveness of your raids greatly.
Aircraft radar is great for night sorties.

1) Choose the right target
Destroyers are difficult targets for aircraft and better be dealt with via naval units.
Aircraft are great at destroying capital ships and carriers of the enemy. (5-6 aircraft are capable of sinking a Battleship in one go). They can also attack the enemy submarines with torpedoes.
2) Separate target, or kill its escort first
Large fleets collectively have powerful AA capacity. So, you have to try isolating the enemy ships and/or destroying their escort first. Then a couple of lonely or separated ships have become an easy target for your aircraft.
3) Attack in the right order
One of the ways to initiate an attack on a target with a strong AA capacity would be as follows. Try attacking with incendiaries first targeting the enemy AA and DP guns and only afterward continue with torpedoes/armor-piercing shells to finish off the enemy.
4) Deal with enemy fighters first
Do not let your bombers fly without fighters cover until the enemy is out of fighters.

AA fire (both land and ship) mostly deals non-lethal damage to Aircraft. Damaged Aircraft are repaired automatically upon landing. (On Carrier or Airfield)
Fighters (and bombers return fire) on the other hand deal mostly lethal damage.
If your Aircraft unit suffered a lot of lethal damage, you can reinforce it for prestige and command points. However, this can be done only on land airfields. (Not on board carrier).
It is important to save your aircraft (at least core ones) and let them gain experience, so that they eventually become your most valuable tool.

We plan certain tweaks (in parameters) and addition of news content (HQ skills and Heroes with custom skill sets and so on) before full release which will add new tricks to your arsenal.

We hope that this article will help in the meantime to use your aircraft force more efficiently.
In the future news updates we will make a comparison of all main types of forces in our game to see what are their respective strong and weak sides. So, stay tuned.

With best regards,
Starni games development team

I feel that I've undertaken a heavy responsibility. If I had only been more firm and refused. Now we've left home waters and I'm beginning to wonder if the operation will work.
- (Before the attack on Pearl Harbor) © Chuichi Nagumo

Chūichi Nagumo (南雲 忠一 Nagumo Chūichi, 25 March 1887 – 6 July 1944) was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was tasked with carrying out the attack on Pearl Harbor and later on he was a commanding officer in other key naval battles of the Pacific war. After the tides of war have turned, and IJN suffered heavy losses, he ended up commanding the defense of the Island of Saipan. When Japanese resistance on Saipan was over he committed suicide with his pistol.

One son of Nagumo described him as a brooding father, obsessed with and later regretful about pressuring his sons into the IJN. In contrast, Nagumo's junior naval officers thought of him as a father figure.
He was a dedicated Navy officer who spent his whole life serving his country to the best of his abilities. He also wanted his sons to join the Navy. While in the beginning of the war against the US his operations were quite successful, the crushing defeat at Midway brought an end to his command in major operations.

I-uh-have the utmost respect for Yamamoto-san. If it had not been for him, there would be no naval aviation. However-the most brilliant man can occasionally make a mistake.
- © Chuichi Nagumo

His relations with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet were arguably strained. Supposedly, Yamamoto might have preferred other officers to take command of the key operations, but the seniority of Nagumo over the rest of candidates left Yamamoto little room for maneuvering. While Nagumo was often voicing his criticism and skeptical view of Yamamoto`s plans, which he then had to carry out.
In Strategic Mind: the Pacific, Admiral Chuichi Nagumo is one of the key characters and while playing the Japanese campaign you will have to work hard to win his trust and support.

As promised in our previous news update, in this update we have presented one of our key characters for the Japanese campaign. Keep following our news updates to learn the rest of the key characters for the Japanese campaign.

With best regards,
Starni Games development team

"I don't care how good they are. Unless they get a kick in the ass every six weeks, they'll slack off."
- Ernest King (1940)

Ernest Joseph King (23 November 1878 – 25 June 1956) was Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) during World War II and is one of the four persons to date to reach the rank of Fleet Admiral. He was assigned right after the Pearl Harbor disaster and tasked with restoring both the might and the prestige of the Navy. It was the right person for this task as he has shown himself to be a professional and strict leader.

"The way to victory is long.
The going will be hard.
We will do the best we can with what we've got.
We must have more planes and ships- at once.
Then it will be our turn to strike.
We will win through- in time."
King's first statement as Commander-in-Chief,
United States fleet, sent on 24 December 1941.

He was mostly preoccupied with the overall strategy, resource allocation, and communication with the government officials, waging most of his “battles” in Washington D.C., while the operational command in the Pacific was mainly the task of Admiral Chester Willam Nimitz.

"Don't tell them anything. When it's over, tell them who won."
- Ernest King (on PR strategy of US Navy)

While the King's advice is sound, especially in a time of war, Starni Games has to overlook this particular piece of advice. We will continue to keep you informed on how our work progresses. Our team keeps working on all aspects of the game. On the screenshot, you can see Admiral King inspecting the new Essex-class carrier with new Hellcat fighter planes on board.

Keep following our news to see the key characters from the Japanese campaign.

With best regards,
Starni Games development team

While advancing in a campaign you gain Prestige. Prestige represents a comprehensive image of how many financial resources are at your disposal, how strong is your political influence, etc. You can spend Prestige to acquire new units, upgrade your units or provide them with new equipment.


Acquiring units is pretty straightforward. You open the corresponding tab, choose the unit you would like to acquire, check whether you have enough Prestige to get it and press the Acquire button. However, you should be aware that every deployed core unit reduces the number of Command points you gain each turn by 1. So, the more units you have on the battlefield, the fewer HQ skills per turn you would be able to use. Thus you have to be smart about the composition of your forces, as “the more the merrier” logic can turn out to be the faulty one. Ultimately, it is totally up to you: there is no limit on the number of units, so if you have lots of Prestige and would like to replicate “Zerg Rush” in a WW2 setting, there is no stopping you.


As the campaign progresses, new models become available and it is prudent to keep your units up-to-date and upgrade them when necessary. Keep in mind that there are two ways the cost of upgrading can be calculated:

• Upgrading units of a different series. If you want to upgrade Hellcat into Corsair then you basically sell Hellcat for 50% of its cost and then buy Corsair for the full price. (The resulting Prestige cost is the same as if you dismissed Hellcat and acquired Corsair, however, by upgrading you moved your experienced pilots from one model of fighter planes to the other, saving all of their levels, skills, and hero (if it was assigned to that unit).
  
• Upgrading units of the same series. If you want to upgrade Hellcat into a newer Hellcat model, you get 90% of you older Hellcat cost and then pay full price for the newer Hellcat. So, it is much more efficient to upgrade units within their series.

Dismissing a unit will get you 50% of its cost in Prestige, but all of its experience and skills will be lost forever.

Please note, that all Naval units of one class are considered of the same series as well. Thus, when upgrading Colorado class battleship into Iowa class battleship you would get 90% of Colorado class battleship cost. The idea being that ships generally serve longer and can be transferred to other fronts and keep serving for many years to come. So by giving away an older ship model, you get back most of its cost.

You can equip your units with better weapons and tools both during and between the operations. Naval units have to be within service zone (next to a Seaport). Ground units have to be next to a supply point, supply hub, seaport or an airfield. Air units have to be landed on board a carrier or at an airfield.

In our previous title Panzer Strategy the corresponding tab was named “Buy units”. And some players felt that it broke an immersion and gave a feeling of visiting a grocery store. However, in many games this process is called “buying” new units and people are more or less used to it.
This time we decided to give it a try and name this tab “Acquire units” and the button “Acquire”. We would like to know your opinions on this matter. Please, let us know in the comments which variant do you think fits our game best:
1) Buy unit
2) Acquire unit
3) Purchase unit
4) “your own variant (please specify)”.

We look forward to reading your comments.

With best regards
Starni games development team

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
⎯ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32 President of the United States of America. He was the only President in US history to be elected 4 times, serving his country from March 1933 to April 1945.

“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”
⎯ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

His Paralytic illness started in 1921 and progress ever since, making him unable to walk without help. Despite such a major hindrance, he managed to continue with his political career and carried his country through the most troublesome times.

“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
⎯ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

We keep working on all aspects of the game, cutscenes being one of them. In future reports, you will see more key characters for both campaigns.

We hope that you can make good use of Franklin Delano Roosevelt`s wise advice both in your daily life and when playing our games.

With best regards,
Starni Games development team

Night, rain, fire or a hole from a torpedo hit ⎯ all of it and much more nasty things could happen to your ships in the unfriendly Pacific Ocean of 1941-1945.

You can always see current negative effects in the unit info tab by right-clicking a unit. While certain skills and attaches will help you mitigate forces of nature` interference, Emergency repair unit can help you with ship fires and holes caused by the enemy attacks.


Maintenance unit automatically repairs 1 hole or fire per turn before they apply the effect. (For example, if you have a ship with 1 Hull HP left and 1 hole, it will not sink, as the Maintenance team would remove it right before it deals damage at the end of your turn).

Emergency repair unit, apart from restoring HP to any ship parts can also remove 1 hole or fire. (For example you have a ship with 1 Hull HP left and 2 holes. In order for it to survive you would need to activate Emergency repair button and choose to remove one hole. Then at the end of your turn the other hole would be removed by Maintenance. There is also a level up skill which allows you to remove 2 holes or fires at once with Emergency repair, thus allowing your 1 Hull HP ship to survive even with 3 holes.

Damage control is an important element of the game and learning to efficiently deal with adverse combat effects is vital to preserve and strengthen your fleet. During the WW2 many large ships were considered to be lost due to poor damage control. Make sure you do not make the same mistake.

Starni games development team

"We're not accustomed to occupying defensive positions. It's destructive to morale." ⎯ Holland McTyeire Smith

Holland McTyeire Smith was a general in the United States Marine Corps, considered by many to be the “father” of modern U.S. amphibious warfare. While his soldiers had given him a “Howlin` Mad” nickname, their recollections on him were reverent.

In the U.S. Pacific campaign general Smith takes command over the landing operations of U.S. Marine Corps forces. He will appear both in cinematics and in the headquarters room (between the operations).

During the EA period, only a lonely admiral Nimitz will be occupying the headquarters, but we are working hard to give him decent company and general Smith will surely join him.

In the future updates you will see more of the key characters for both campaigns, so make sure you do not miss them.

With best regards,
Starni Games development team

Today we tell you about the supply mechanics.

In-game info
First of all, you can learn about each individual building in the game by right-clicking on it.

Supply generation
There are two primary sources of supply which then pump it through the whole system:

• Primary hub (generates supplies on its own)
  
• Maritime hub (generates supplies when has an allied port in adjacent hex)

From these sources supplies then transferred to the other elements of Supply Network.

Supply distribution.
Each Supply hub, Supply point or Maritime hub distributes supply within the Supply Zone around it. The Supply Zone is determined by a truck with 8 move points and wheeled movement type (let's call it supply truck) - if the supply truck can reach certain hex within 1 turn then this hex is in the Supply Zone. They are also connected to each other, forming a Supply Network and passing on supplies via the same 8-move points supply truck.
In the case of seaport there is 10 move points supply vessel.

Cut the supply lines
If an enemy unit blocks the way of the supply truck, then it cuts off the connection between these elements of Supply Network and reduces the Supply Zone.
Same applies for the naval supply vessel: if the enemy ships block the way it cannot bring the supplies.

Block the port
If the enemy naval units are within 2 hexes from the allied seaport they blockade it completely.

Destroy the infrastructure
If any object of infrastructure is reduced to 50% HP or lower, it is no longer functional (eg. railroad station no longer provides a connection for the Supply Network and cannot embark/disembark units on a train). HP is restored over time.

Supply Zone and Service Zone
Supply Zone is marked with box icons on the hexes and indicated where your units will get resupplied at the end of your turn.
Service Zone is marked with a wrench icon and indicates where your units can be Reinforced or their Equipment changed.

Supply tactics
It is important to make make sure your advancing troops will have an active Supply Zone nearby for timely resupply.
You can also leave the enemy without supplies by cutting off/blocking or taking from him crucial elements of his supply network, thus ensuring your troops' success.

Please note that this is still a work in progress and some details may change.

We are working on the game manual so you can rest assured that all this and lots of other information will be there waiting for you in the game at full release.

Starni Games development team